Squirrelios

This is Cocoa, the latest squirrel that was brought to us. He was found, presumed orphaned, a couple of weeks ago. We'll do our best to raise and then release him. We released Huey and Duey a few weeks ago (see previous posts). A week afterwards, though, Duey came up to the nature center's front door. We thought he was just saying hi, until we noticed some blood around his mouth. Horrified, we went out to try to catch him. Christina and I caught him in a net, but he managed to squeeze out. We tried again, and he'd get close but not enough to get caught.

Heartbroken, we were forced to leave him outside, but put out some soft food for him on the porch. The next day, he came to the back porch for some grapes. It was a nice cool day out, so we had the doors open. Well, he decided to let himself in! We closed the door then Christina used food to lure him to her and got him in his old cage!

We drove him down to the Jacksonville Wildlife Rescue Coalition to be examined. They had him a few days and said that the poor guy had knocked his top front teeth out! They gave him some antibiotics for inflammation and started feeding him formula. We got him back and have been continuing his medication and giving him formula and soft fruits and veggies. He is doing great!

The good thing is that rodents', including squirrels', teeth grow continuously. So, in a couple of months Duey's teeth should be fine for eating! We'll monitor them to make sure they are growing back correctly. If they don't, we'll have to file them down regularly. Either way, we're so happy that he knew where to get help when he needed it!